Eric Swalwell and the Death of Accountability [View all]

His sexual misconduct was an open secret. So why was he still seen as a rising star in the party?

https://prospect.org/2026/04/12/eric-swalwell-death-of-accountability-sexual-misconduct/


California gubernatorial candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) appears at a town hall meeting in Sacramento, California, April 7, 2026. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

At a Democratic Club meeting in West Los Angeles on Saturday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) was asked the question that every mildly engaged Democrat in the state is asking each other right now: What is your position on the Eric Swalwell situation? Since Friday afternoon, when the San Francisco Chronicle detonated a long-rumored bombshell by reporting a credible sexual assault charge, and CNN followed on with accounts from four different women (with more weighing in by the hour), everyone tangentially associated with California politics has had to take a side, and they all are taking the opportunity to throw Swalwell overboard.


All 21 members of Congress who had endorsed Swalwell had revoked that within 24 hours; the House Democratic leadership advised him to end his gubernatorial race; the head of the state Democratic Party did the same in a bit of an oblique way (“My call for all—repeat, all—candidates for Governor to ‘honestly assess the viability of their candidacy and campaign’ still stands. In fact, that call is more important now than ever before”); the California Labor Federation, which had ridiculously endorsed four candidates for governor including Swalwell, dropped him from their roster, and two big union endorsers (the California Teachers Association and SEIU California, the latter of which had just started a super PAC for him with a $2 million investment) suspended their activities; two fundraisers in L.A. scheduled for Sunday were canceled; you can no longer donate to him on ActBlue or his campaign website; and even Swalwell’s senior staffers—including staffers for his current gubernatorial campaign—have said in an open letter that people should stand with the victims, and that they are only staying in their jobs to fulfill obligations to the congressmember’s constituents.

Waters did not diverge from the general trend. She noted that Swalwell was gaining momentum in the dicey California governor’s race, but that now “he’s got to go.” She also said that Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who has personally asked Swalwell to drop out, had more stature to do so, because she “had been supporting him and raising money for him.” This is untrue; Pelosi never formally endorsed in the governor’s race and never fundraised for Swalwell, though he asked. The question that many have been asking is why the stampede away from Swalwell is happening so quickly, and there are a few different answers. First, in the wake of the Cesar Chavez revelations, there is absolutely no room to excuse away sexual assault, and the reporting is credible, thorough, and believable, enough to trigger an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, because one of the assaults described in the reporting allegedly took place in New York.



Second, California Democrats have been nervous about the large field of Democrats in the governor’s race anyway. This fear lessened after President Trump endorsed Fox News commentator Steve Hilton, which will likely pull him away from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and give a Democrat a chance to reach the top-two runoff in the June 2 primary. In other words, as California Democrats looked for a leader to get them out of this largely self-created mess of a primary, they found one in Donald Trump. But Swalwell imploding also winnows the field considerably and will make a Hilton-vs.-Democrat general election more likely. But there’s a third reason that Democrats are heading for the exits rapidly, and it’s one they won’t like to talk about. The truth, which will be available for all to see before long, is that Swalwell’s conduct with interns, young staff, and female fans was an open secret for a long time, and yet the party, if not Pelosi in this case specifically, had been supporting him and raising money for him. That speaks to a larger problem.



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